It had taken Xie Quanzhou an agonizingly long time to wait for his wife to come of age, only for his former military unit to suddenly notify him that his parents’ case had been reinvestigated and cleared of false charges. His parents were reinstated to their original official positions, and he was recalled by his original unit. By that time, he was already a deputy battalion commander; all he needed to do was return, submit his marriage application to the unit, and take leave to come back and bring Yinyin over to live with him.
However, he was assigned to a high-risk special operation where his life was constantly on the line. He could only entrust his battalion commander with mailing money home every month. While the first year went smoothly, the remittances eventually started bouncing back as undeliverable. He only found out why when the mission concluded a month prior. According to his commanding officers, just one more mission remained before his discharge from special duties.
Yet, upon hearing from a stray rumor that his wife was about to be forced into a marriage, the leadership immediately pulled him from the deployment roster. Desperate to reach her, he secured his leave approval straight from the top, bringing along the very same marriage application form from years ago, ready to be signed and sealed anew. Because the military had already vetted Shang Yinyin’s background as the daughter of revolutionary martyrs, paperwork hurdles were virtually non-existent—all it required was a fresh signature and official stamp from his commanding officer.
“Quanzhou, I missed you so much too. For six whole years, not a single moment passed where I wasn’t thinking of you,” Shang Yinyin murmured, pressing her face against his chest. “From now on, no matter how you try to chase me away, I’m not leaving. I’m staying right by your side.”
A soft, low chuckle escaped his lips. “Why would I ever chase you away? Even if you wanted to leave, I’d forcefully keep you by my side.”
Flustered and shy, she giggled softly.
“I bought you a gift, too,” he remembered, pulling out a small box. Inside lay a wristwatch, which he opened and presented to her.
“This is too expensive.” A single watch cost a staggering one hundred and twenty yuan.
“I bought it for my wife, so it’s not expensive. Besides, isn’t Niannian heading to university soon? I bought one for her as well,” Xie Quanzhou explained. “Yours is different, though—it’s a matching couple’s set. I have one just like it.”
Noticing how much gentler he was in this life compared to her memories—whether it was just an illusion or the result of her own proactive warmth changing his disposition—she surrendered to the gesture. “Then put it on for me.”
Realizing she couldn’t refuse, she extended her wrist. He carefully lifted the watch from its velvet lining and fastened it securely around her arm. Admiring the piece on her wrist, he smiled with satisfaction. “It looks wonderful. I love it.”
Pulling her down to sit beside him, he wrapped his arms around her waist. “Yinyin, does the family owe a lot of debt?” On his journey here, Uncle Niu had mentioned how heavily in debt Chen Cuihua was after scraping together funds for the children’s education. When Shang Yinyin made that desperate phone call, she had believed he abandoned her, leading her aunt to hastily arrange a match that nearly sealed her fate.
“Mhm, quite a lot—over two hundred yuan,” she answered, a flicker of pain crossing her features. It was precisely that crushing debt that had driven her toward the trap of a forced marriage in her past life. Back then, Niannian had urged her to run away, but she had been far too cowardly and lost to know where to go, resigning herself instead to a bitter fate. With only a rudimentary education, she had been molded by rural norms into believing women must blindly obey their elders’ matchmaking arrangements. It was that very timidity and crippling self-doubt that had caused her to nearly lose the man who loved her most.
“It’s alright. I’m back now. I’ll hand the money over to your aunt right away so she can clear the debts,” he reassured her, relieved that her aunt hadn’t put up a fight against taking Yinyin away today.
“Quanzhou, I promise I’ll pay you back every single cent,” she insisted earnestly.
“Pay me back? What’s mine is yours, no need to return a thing,” he murmured, looking down into her eyes.
As their gazes locked, a deep crimson spread across her face, and she hastily buried her burning cheeks back against his chest. Noting how much more adorable she was compared to six years ago—and realizing she was now legally an adult with whom he could share a husband-and-wife’s true life—a matching flush crept up his own neck.
“Oh right, I have a gift for you too,” she suddenly remembered, jumping to her feet. Unlatching her storage box, she pulled out two handmade shirts—one short-sleeved, one long-sleeved. “I made these for you. I’m not sure if the fit is right, but try them on.”
As she handed them over, her face beamed with pride and affection. Surprised and deeply touched, Xie Quanzhou accepted them instantly. “Alright, let me try them on right now.”
Turning away with a flushed face, she gave him privacy to change. Within moments, he announced, “All done.”
When she spun back around, her breath hitched. The fitted shirt hugged his broad shoulders and narrow waist, framing a physique where his chest muscles strained subtly beneath the fabric. Standing before him, she had to tilt her head all the way back just to meet his eyes.
“The fit is perfect, no alterations needed,” she evaluated, confirming once again that someone with a great build could pull off anything.
At that moment, Niannian’s voice chimed in from outside the courtyard door. “Sis! Brother-in-law! The hot water is ready, time to wash up!”
“Alright, coming!” Shang Yinyin called back, before turning to Xie Quanzhou. “You must be exhausted, go wash up first while I finish straightening the bed.”
“Take this watch and give it to Niannian,” he instructed, handing over the extra items. “I also bought a piece of clothing for your aunt—have her try it on. If the sizing is off, I’ll take it back into town tomorrow to exchange it.” Having stepped off the train, he had splurged on armfuls of gifts for the household.
“Got it, I’ll handle it,” she nodded.
As Xie Quanzhou gathered his things for the washroom, she distributed the remaining packages. Putting on her watch, Niannian cheered, “Brother-in-law is the absolute best! Just like when we were little, out of everyone, he treats me the best and always thinks of me first.”
“Well, somebody has to spoil the youngest,” Shang Yinyin teased.
“Sis, you’re the best too,” Niannian beamed, wrapping her arms around her sister in an affectionate hug, though a twinge of sadness crept in at the thought of sleeping apart tonight. “Ah, I have to sleep in the other room by myself now that he’s back…”
“Once you get married someday, you’ll be sharing a room with your own husband too,” Shang Yinyin whispered playfully into her ear.
“Oh, Sis! Stop teasing!” Niannian squeaked, blushing furiously as she batted playfully at her sister’s arm.
In the main room, Chen Cuihua sat quietly by the dim glow of an oil lamp, mending clothes. Watching the two sisters laugh and play, she felt a bittersweet nostalgia, as if things had drifted back to how they used to be. Yet an invisible wall still lingered between her and Shang Yinyin; though daily life had normalized since the engagement was called off, they could never quite recapture the past. Deep down, regret gnawed at her—why had she blindly agreed to that awful match in a moment of exasperation? Marrying a fool meant sentencing a girl to a lifetime of caretaking. But what choice had she possessed when the household was drowning in debt and completely destitute? Fortunately, Xie Quanzhou hadn’t truly abandoned her, averting a lifelong tragedy. Chen Cuihua didn’t dare hope for immediate forgiveness; the children were grown with their own paths to walk, and they would soon leave this village far behind anyway.
Shang Yinyin understood her aunt’s hardships, even if she could never excuse the attempt to trade her future to a fool. Mostly, though, she blamed her own past helplessness; had she possessed the courage to listen to Niannian and run away back then, perhaps her destiny would have diverged entirely. Then again, fleeing might have meant missing Xie Quanzhou altogether in some foreign place, resulting in an even bleaker existence.
Bitterness dissolved into understanding. After all, they were both merely women crushed beneath the weight of a society that deemed them worthless. If she hadn’t left with Xie Quanzhou in her past life to witness the wider world and gain an education, she would have continued bowing to fate, obediently marrying the village fool just like countless women before her. The invisible chains of tradition had bound her aunt just as tightly, whispering the perennial lie that a woman abandoned by men could never survive on her own.